Handmade Cards

Just wanted to pop in and share two cards I made. One for Mother's Day & the other for M's birthday.

Used 2 different washi tapes for the strips. The
x's, o's & hearts are a roller stamp. 

Used a pencil eraser for the yellow dots & made
the teal color from mixing acrylic paints.

Used some Mr. Huey mist in the background,
washi tape and stickers.

We celebrated M's 37th this past weekend by watching movies & eating good food. The Nelson's roll like that ;) The movies of note were Life of Pi, Cloud Atlas and Upstream Color. Upstream Color was really really good. It's classified as science fiction but if that's not your thing, trust me, it's more of a very unique, beautiful, yet slightly disturbing love story. Be forewarned if you are an animal lover that there are a few tough scenes.

Have any good movie recommendations to share?

Right Now

Taken in our driveway this morning on my
way to work

Around here lately:

• Trying to find a sense of balance between my day job & my virtual assistant business. Not sure that balance even exists. At least not in my world. But that doesn't meant I know what else to call it or that I don't strive for some shape or form of it. 
• Wanting to create more but choosing shadow comforts instead (credit to Jen Louden for that term). Speaking of which, here's a card I made for my parent's 40th anniversary that I never shared:

• Looking forward to seeing Sheryl WuDunn & America Ferrera tomorrow night. Even better, going with a good friend & getting to catch up. 
• Loving my boys

Do you believe balance can be achieved? 

Creative Project: Altered Journal Round Robin 2013

Today, I wanted to share my most recent altered journal spreads for the round robin I'm participating in.

1st spread

I used enamel dots, washi, Mister Huey's mists,
stickers, a Heidi Swapp tag sprayed with
her color shine & some patterned paper

For this page, I used 2 different patterned papers,
washi, some stickers and a die cut

2nd spread

This one used washi, paper, a Heidi Swapp
tag, several chip board stickers and a die cut

More patterned paper, the same washi I
used above, a Heidi Swapp frame misted with
her color shine & a bunch of die cuts & tags
layered over one another

What projects are you working on?

Creative Project: Project Life 2013

For those of you who have been following my blog for a bit, you know that I participated in Project Life last year & that it was my first time. I became hooked and really LOVE this project. Though the time commitment is not for the faint of heart. This year I've decided to change quite a few things I did in the past in order to make it more manageable for me.

First, I've switched up the size of the album I'm using from a 12x12 format to a Studio Calico Handbook, which is 8.75x9.75. I find this smaller style to be much easier & preferable. Second, I've let go of the weekly format to documenting monthly instead. More than I'd like to admit, I found myself adding pics or ephemera for the sake of it in order to fill the slots. Going by month, means I'm only adding the stories that truly mean something.

Here are my 2013 title page and January's title page. I'm a little behind this year already, and with my new business venture (which you can read about here), I'm finding less time for creating. But that's a post for a different day. I am still enthusiastic about Project Life & am collecting my stories & ephemera diligently. I think that the new changes I'm implementing this year will really help out with playing catch-up.

Title page

January title page - that pic is
from a post card I received with my
annual OLW egg purchase. 

Used gold embossing powder on the
bottom stamp

This is the album. I'm not sure how I'm going
to embellish it. I was thinking of using
chalkboard spray paint for cover.

Thanks for stopping by!

Creative Project: One Little Word 2013 - Jan Prompt

I am participating in Ali Edward's One Little Word class again this year. You can read about the word I chose for 2013 here.

For January's assignment we were asked to set 12 intentions & 12 corresponding actions to establish what we'd like to invite into our lives this year. Ali divided her 12 intentions and actions out by month, but I couldn't wrap my head around that idea, so I just numbered mine. I mean how could I possibly know what any given month would hold for me or what I would want to focus on? And even though she said not to get caught up on which month is which or be strategic about it, I couldn't get past the monthly labels, hence the numbers.  We also included a title card along with a photo of ourselves and 4 "art" cards.

Here are my spreads:

Kept it simple with a mix of stickers, journaling and stamps.

I used gold embossing powder on
that Make stamp. Also ran out of the # 1
stickers so had to improvise using other stickers.

Anyone else pick a word for the year? What are you currently working on?

Welcome April & my 2013 One Little Word

Hello April. 2013 is flying by and I can't help but want time to slow down a little. I mean wasn't it just New Year's day like a week ago? I think that I also feel this way because it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I felt myself come out of hibernation. I typically look towards a new year with anticipation & excitement at starting over and this year was no different but that initial enthusiasm died rather quickly. And then I pulled my back in late January and I've been out of commission now for a little over 2 months. So April is really my New Year and my clean slate.

But as I said, I snapped out of my funk/rut a bit ago & exciting things are happening. Which leads me to my one little word for this year: SHINE. I chose this word because I'm tired of hiding behind fear, procrastination & excuses. Because I may be an introvert but that doesn't mean I can't stand out. Because I want to make things happen and share my victories. So SHINE seemed appropriate.

And per my usual tradition, I got my egg. And instead of writing a manifesto and then having my friend Caiti design it, I chose to just purchase her personalized graphic print of my word.

Check out Caiti's Etsy shop here

Finally, the new thing I added are these awesome customized flair buttons from Ormolu.

I plan on using these in my creative projects

Lastly, I want to share one of the exciting things that I alluded to above. A couple weeks ago after a particularly difficult day at work, I decided enough is enough and declared to M that I was starting a virtual assistant business. As of today, I have 2 clients, one of which offered me a job this morning! The first client is WhimseyBox and I'll be helping them build into a kick-ass resource for DIY and craft lovers. I'll share the second client after I get permission. So my plan is to transition from my traditional 9-5 and into this full-time. I am beyond thrilled about this new venture. And yes, I am still planning on starting a business for paper lovers.

Please share your 2013 one little word 

and/or your manifesto. Or any big goals.

Creative Project: Altered Journal Round Robin 2013

This past Sunday, I went into my office for the first time in probably 2 months, to work on an altered journal for another round robin. And it felt so good to be back creating. Even if I did pay for it afterwards with major back pain - it was completely worth it.

So today, I wanted to share the spreads I created in the first journal I received & share a little about this year's round robin.  The participants are Mary, Janet & Andria. We agreed to to create 2 full page spreads in each journal, twice around, beginning with our own. Unfortunately, I was not able to 
make my spreads so I had to send it on and will do them when I receive my journal. 

I used paper, washi tape, chipboard stickers and regular
stickers for this 

For this spread I used paper, a little gesso & blue
watercolor wash, along with more washi, stickers
& mini banners. I also used a cool
Ormolu barcode stamp
that says hand made 

Thanks for stopping by.